Home
Promises
Barnes and Noble
Promises
Current price: $16.99
Barnes and Noble
Promises
Current price: $16.99
Size: CD
Loading Inventory...
*Product information may vary - to confirm product availability, pricing, shipping and return information please contact Barnes and Noble
(aka
) gets top billing for having composed this 46-minute suite. The keyboardist and electronic music producer met with tenor sax demigod
in 2019, and completed the recording in 2020 with the violins, violas, cellos, and double basses of
. This cross-generational collaboration is more natural than it might seem; some of
's previous electric piano work has evinced an appreciation for the tranquility and restraint in
's use of the Fender Rhodes, heard first on
'
. To
's credit, his framework for
is in the moment. There's no evident intent to evoke any point in the saxophonist's past, or even in maintaining continuity with the
catalog. Moreover, this is a fulfilling listen for those who hoped to hear more from
the sideman on the 2019 and 2020 LPs led by
and
. In the main,
' playing is soft and lyrical, not so much searching as observing, like he's strolling down a densely wooded path with
's recurrent arpeggio flickering like sunlight through gaps in trees. (That motif is deployed with such frequency that it can be a distraction.) There's a gradual ebb and flow through the first four movements, the last of which is enhanced by
' friendly vocal trills. His saxophone then becomes more active and clustered, yet tightly controlled, and early into the sixth movement yields to a mass of strings signifying a looming threat that dissipates before turning violent, seemingly cradled into silence. Up springs the arpeggio and
' saxophone, placid until invigorated by swirling electronics.
emits piquant beams, never quite blasts, and fades out by the end of the seventh movement. Droning organs and violins that whisk and wrench are centered in the two final movements, finishing the suite with a sense of uncertainty. The trip is well worth completing despite
' early exit. ~ Andy Kellman